Your “elevator pitch” is how you present yourself in an intriguing, attention-grabbing and articulate way. When someone asks you about yourself or your work, being prepared with your “pitch” immediately catches their interest and opens the conversation so you can provide more detail. Developing and refining your pitch is more difficult than it sounds, which is why there are … Read more
Today was the first day of the 27th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, also known as ICAR. If you follow Twitter, we’re using #ICAR_2016 (apparently there is an “Animal Reproduction” conference using #ICAR2016 so we’ve added the underscore; as Twitter becomes more and more popular we’re running into more of these “bandwidth” issues). The conference … Read more
Looking for career resources and workshops to help navigate your career path? Look no further. Here are 4 ways to supercharge your career at Plant Biology 2016. 1. Improve your skills Choose any of these career-related workshops: Re-imagining Postgraduate Training for the Plant Sciences (Saturday, 10-12) Writing Science: Inspire careful thinking and useful discourse (Sunday, … Read more
Are you from a PUI (Primarily Undergraduate Institution)? Here are four easy ways to connect with your peers, support each other, get ideas, and find resources. Attend the PUI Networking Workshop: Funding Research at PUI – Sunday, July 10 – 7-9 pm – $ This workshop is for faculty currently working at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) or younger scientists … Read more
Guest post from Sonja Dunbar, PhD student at the University of Cambridge @PlantSciSonja In Easter term I cover the topic of conservation with my students, wandering into the area where plant science very clearly intersects with political and social factors. We are also close to exams at this point, one of which has a synoptic … Read more
So you probably know you can stop by the Membership desk (next to registration) to learn about ASPB membership, to join or renew your ASPB membership, and to say hi to some familiar faces, those ASPB staff you’ve been emailing with all year. But did you know you could also do these fun things? Purchase Plantae and Plant … Read more
Dr. Todd Anderson, US Department of Energy will give the plenary talk at this year’s 5th Pan-American Congress On Plants and BioEnergy which is taking place August 4-7, 2016 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Anderson recently shared some of his insight into the bioenergy industry and what to expect from his session. What’s the … Read more
Recently, we’ve been profiling first authors of Plant Cell papers that are selected for In Brief summaries. Here are the first-author profiles from the June issue of The Plant Cell. Yuki Kondo, featured first author of Vascular Cell Induction Culture System Using Arabidopsis Leaves (VISUAL) Reveals the Sequential Differentiation of Sieve Element-like Cells Current Position: … Read more
The USDA ARS Corvallis, Oregon stations participated in International Fascination of Plants Day (FoPD) on June 18, 2016. This activity was launched under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organisation (ESPO) in cooperation with the American Society of Plant Biologists. The goal of FoPD is to show all the different ways plants play roles … Read more
You are probably familiar with the process of making a transgenic plant; gene identification, gene introduction into a plant cell via bombardment or Agrobacterium tumefaciens, selection of transformed tissue, and plant regeneration (as shown in the diagram from Teaching Tools in Plant Biology). Many of you have probably carried out the process, at least in … Read more
NSF is offering a draft of a new Proposal and Award Policies Procedure Guide. The guide is expected to ‘go live’ in January 2017. An active leader in the National Alliance for Broader Impacts recently noted that this proposed guide has some subtle yet rather interesting changes in the merit review wording. The biggest question … Read more
So you’re hearing good things about the new plant science networking platform Plantae and want to get involved? You’ve come to the right blog post! Read on to learn how to set up your profile, find friends and get involved with the community. Who are you? Plantae is a great place to network with researchers … Read more
This Research in Focus is written by science writer Peter Minorsky (ASPB and Mercy College) who writes the monthly On the Inside column for Plant Physiology. This summary describes a paper by Lacey and Binder, to be published in the July 2016 issue. The authors examine a putative ethylene receptor in cyanobacteria; this protein had … Read more
Did you know that you can now access the Teaching Tools in Plant Biology articles on Plantae? Teaching Tools in Plant Biology is a popular feature of The Plant Cell, but it’s also a little different than the usual Plant Cell content. Because of the way it is hosted on the journal website, it sometimes … Read more
I could already sense the festivity in the air when I arrived at the Maker’s Faire in downtown Shreveport early on a Saturday morning. I scanned the rows of vendors and food trucks as I looked for my target – the booth for Sciport: Louisiana’s Discovery Center. With help from the center and my mentor, … Read more
Arabidopsis thaliana has been an excellent model for the dissection of molecular plant-microbe interactions, including responses to pathogens. Studies in Arabidopsis have identified core components of signaling pathways involved in sensing and responding to pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), which including chitin (a structural carbohydrate of fungal cell walls) and flagellin (an abundant bacterial protein). … Read more
Have you got a passion for plant science that you are eager to share? Do you have a favorite paper, experiment, topic, or method that you like to share with undergraduates? Have you found a clever way to engage students and stimulate their curiosity? We want to hear your ideas for new content for The … Read more
Transcriptomic data reveal how an organism or tissue expresses its genes (through transcription into mRNA) at any moment in time, and these data are extremely valuable when trying to describe plant growth, development and environmental response. For example, roots can be starved for the nutrient phosphate and the time course and pattern of gene expression … Read more
Fascination of Plants Day (FoPD) is celebrated around the world on May 18th. Although this worldwide event runs every other year and the next one is planned for 2017, smaller and local events were encouraged per individual and local interest on 2016. What a better way to celebrate FoPD than learning about the awesomeness of … Read more
The ASPB SURF program funds undergraduate students to conduct 10 consecutive weeks of plant biology research with a mentor during the early part of their college career. This year’s SURF recipients will present their research during the undergraduate and regular poster sessions at Plant Biology 2017. Congratulations to these 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows and … Read more
